Construction crews ready to hit the road

Thomas V. Bona

Monday

Mar 30, 2009 at 12:01 AMMar 30, 2009 at 12:48 PM

If it wasn’t for the federal stimulus package, members of Laborers Local 32 would be facing their slowest year since Ronald Reagan was president. But thanks to the nearly $20 million in road projects the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will fund in the Rock River Valley, they’ll face a year only somewhat below average.

If it wasn’t for the federal stimulus package, members of Laborers Local 32 would be facing their slowest year since Ronald Reagan was president.

But thanks to the nearly $20 million in road projects the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will fund in the Rock River Valley, they’ll face a year only somewhat below average.

“We’d be dead in the water,” business manager Tom Dal Santo said. “There’s no building work. ... The only job we would have going in town would be I-90.”

The stimulus-funded projects could more than double the union’s man hours to almost 700,000 this season. That’s still almost 20 percent less than a typical year, but still a healthy boost during a recession. Other unions that represent road crews also could see increases.

On Friday, the Illinois Department of Transportation will award approximately $13 million in projects in Winnebago, Boone, Stephenson and Ogle counties. Work could start quickly — anywhere from two to seven weeks. An additional $6 million in local projects will be awarded by the summer.

“The big effect is that we’re able to get employees out to work quicker,” said Ben Holmstrom, president of William Charles Construction Co. in Loves Park. “Overall, the total dollars we’re bidding is a small percent of our overall sales, but they are projects that are local. They are projects that are going to start immediately.”

William Charles is bidding on up to six projects in the area, according to state documents. If the company wins those bids, it could bring a couple of hundred workers back to work earlier than expected and give as many as 30 people new jobs, Holmstrom said.

Several other companies in the region are eligible to bid on projects around northern Illinois.

Every $1 million spent on construction typically employs 10 workers for a year, said Glen Turpoff, executive director of the Northern Illinois Building Contractors Association. That means $20 million in local projects could mean 200 jobs. And each dollar paid in wages is multiplied as it works its way through the economy.

But the biggest benefit of the stimulus package is that it may help the state balance its books, Turpoff said, eventually freeing up money for many road projects.

“Obviously it’s got to be just the beginning, because 200 people aren’t going to be enough to break us out of this cycle,” Turpoff said. “Our hope is that this is what unsettles the cork and opens the bottle.”

Gov. Pat Quinn is touting a multiyear, $26 billion capital construction plan he says would support 340,000 jobs around the state.

That plan is the key, said Joel Sjostrom, president of Sjostrom & Sons in Rockford. His company doesn’t do asphalt work, so it’s only bidding on smaller bridge projects funded by the federal stimulus package.

“I’m expecting that the stimulus package will have very, very little effect on our company and the people we hire,” Sjostrom said. “What we really need is to have people down in Springfield get their act together” and approve a capital plan.

Three other area companies — Martin & Co. Excavating in Oregon, Civil Constructors in Freeport and Rock Road Co. in Janesville, Wis. — are registered to bid for Friday’s round of projects.

Local leaders feel slighted by the state’s choices on how to spend the stimulus money. The four-county region was originally tapped to get about $27 million in state projects, but about half have been removed from the list, mostly in Stephenson County. That’s because IDOT started with a list bigger than its budget to ensure it had enough “shovel-ready” projects to go this spring. Other regions also lost projects.

“I would argue that $13 million worth of work for the third-biggest city in Illinois is pretty weak,” Holmstrom said. “We’re happy to get whatever we can, but it’s pretty weak.”

Thomas V. Bona can be reached at (815) 987-1343 or tbona@rrstar.com.

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